Underwater vehicle for cleaning submerged surfaces

ABSTRACT

This underwater vehicle for cleaning submerged surfaces comprises a chassis and at least one brush for cleaning the surface to be cleaned, rotationally driven by a motor about an axis of rotation of this brush, the brush being able to move, with respect to a fixed part of the vehicle, in a translational movement along its axis of rotation in such a way that it can be pressed firmly against the surface to be cleaned under the effect of a vacuum created by the rotation of the brush, the brush comprising a rotation shaft inserted into a sleeve that rotates as one with the brush and rotationally driven by a drive system, the brush rotating as one with the sleeve because of fingers fixed to the sleeve and inserted into holes of the brush with the possibility of sliding parallel to the axis of rotation of the brush.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority benefit under 35 U.S.C. §371 to International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2012/062588 entitled UNDERWATER VEHICLE FOR CLEANING SUBMERGED SURFACES, and filed by inventor Sébastien Fontaine on Jun. 28, 2012. International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2012/062588 claims priority to French Patent Application No. 11 55805, filed by inventor Sébastien Fontaine on Jun. 29, 2011.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an underwater vehicle for cleaning submerged surfaces.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is known to clean the surfaces submerged in water, in particular the hulls of boats by using underwater vehicles or robots that travel along the submerged surface of the hulls, removing fouling, such as plants, minerals or shellfish, using rotating brushes.

The waste is generally aspirated by a flow of water created by a turbine which also provides for the maintaining of the robot against the hull of the boat by creating a vacuum. Such robots comprise means for displacement, such as wheels or tracks, providing the displacement of the robot against the hull.

When the hull of the boat has irregularities or differences in level in relation to the brushes, the effectiveness of the cleaning is reduced. In addition, the thrusting of the robot against the hull can lose in effectiveness.

It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,692 to take advantage of the effect of the vacuum caused by the rotation of the cleaning brushes which tends to attract the brushes towards the surface to be cleaned. For this purpose, the brushes are free in translation according to their axis of rotation, in such a way that they can be pressed firmly onto the surface to be cleaned, which improves the effectiveness of the cleaning. This technique implements a rotation shaft of the brushes provided with grooves that cooperate with grooves of rotation shafts of the motors of the brushes, in order to allow for the translation movements. These grooves have the disadvantage of being expensive to produce and of causing relatively substantial friction between the shafts of the motors and the shafts of the brushes.

SUMMARY

The invention aims to overcome these disadvantages by proposing a new underwater vehicle for cleaning submerged surfaces, which allows for a freedom in translation and in rotation of the brushes through means that are inexpensive and more effective than those of prior art.

To this effect, the invention relates to an underwater vehicle for cleaning submerged surfaces comprising a chassis and at least one brush for cleaning the surface rotationally driven by a motor about a central axis, the brush is able to move, with respect to a fixed part of the vehicle, in a translational movement along its axis of rotation in such a way that it can be pressed firmly against the surface to be cleaned under the effect of a vacuum created by the rotation of the brush, the brush comprising a rotation shaft inserted into a sleeve that rotates as one with the brush and rotationally driven by a drive system. This cleaning vehicle is characterised in that the brush rotates as one with the sleeve because of fingers fixed to the sleeve and inserted into holes of the brush with the possibility of sliding parallel to the axis of rotation of the brush.

Thanks to the invention, the freedom in translation of the brushes according to their axis of rotation is provided by simple means that are inexpensive to produce and that generate little friction.

According to advantageous aspects of the invention but which are not mandatory, such a cleaning vehicle can incorporate one or several of the following characteristics, taken in any technically permissible combination:

-   -   The vehicle comprises means for transmitting, between the brush         and the fixed part of the vehicle, a force for thrusting the         brush onto the surface to be cleaned generated by the vacuum         created by the rotation of the brush.     -   The means for transmitting the force for thrusting include a         spring mounted between the brush and the sleeve and suited for         exerting a force that tends to bring closer the brush to the         fixed part of the vehicle.     -   The vehicle comprises members for displacement on the surface to         be cleaned.     -   The vehicle comprises two annularly-shaped brushes each centred         about its axis of rotation.     -   The members for displacement include two wheels driven in pairs         on two opposite sides of the chassis by two belts each driven by         a motor.     -   The brush is able to move in a translational movement along its         axis of rotation between a first position, in which the brush is         retracted in relation to the surfaces of contact between the         wheels and the surface to be cleaned on the side of a bottom of         the chassis, and a second position, in which the brush is         protruding in relation to the surfaces of contact between the         wheels and the surface to be cleaned, opposite the bottom of the         chassis.     -   The vehicle comprises rollers interposed between the wheels and         whereon the belts bear against.     -   The belts are mounted in grooves retracted from the external         edges of the wheels.

The invention further relates to a use of an underwater vehicle for cleaning such as mentioned hereinabove for the cleaning of submerged hulls of boats.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other advantages and characteristics shall appear more clearly in the following description of an embodiment of a cleaning vehicle according to the invention, provided by way of a non-restricted example and made in reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective top view of a cleaning vehicle according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective bottom view, of the cleaning vehicle of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the cleaning vehicle of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-section according to the plane III in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross-section on a larger scale according to the plane V in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a view on a larger scale of the detail VI in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 5, in a second configuration of positioning brushes of the cleaning vehicle, in contact with the hull of a boat;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIGS. 5 and 7, for a third configuration of positioning the brushes of the cleaning vehicle;

FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 6, in the configuration of FIG. 8. The underwater vehicle for cleaning 2 shown in the figures comprises a chassis 4 that has two lateral walls 41, 42, a front wall 44 and a rear wall 46. X-X′ denotes a longitudinal axis of the vehicle 2 parallel to the lateral walls 41 and 42.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The vehicle 2 is provided with members for displacement comprising two pairs 6 and 7 of synchronised wheels mounted in parallel to the lateral walls 41 and 42. The pairs 6 and 7 include respectively two toothed wheels 63, 64 and 73, 74. The wheels 63, 64, 73 and 74 are driven and synchronised in rotation by the drive belts 61 and 71 about axes parallel to a transversal axis Y-Y′ of the vehicle 2, perpendicular to the X-X′ axis. The belts 61 and 71 are mounted in central grooves 700 of the external edges of the wheels 63, 64, 73 and 74.

Z-Z′ denotes an axis perpendicular to the axes X-X′ and Y-Y′ and which defines the normal to the surfaces of contact between the wheels 63, 64, 73 and 74 and a submerged surface to be cleaned, here the hull of the boat referenced as C and shown only in FIG. 7.

The invention can also be implemented to clean other types of submerged surfaces, in particular the submerged surfaces of a mast of a wind turbine located at sea, the walls of a swimming pool, gates of locks, pontoons or the walls of an aquarium.

The vehicle 2 comprises two motors M1 and M2 each suited to rotationally drive one of the belts 61 and 71. The motors M1 and M2 each comprise a drive system 65 and 75 possibly comprising means for reducing the speed. The drive systems 65 and 75 include toothed wheels 66 and 76 making it possible to transmit the spin torque to the belts 61 and 71. These drive systems 65 and 75 are protected by covers 710.

The belts 61 and 71 are also suited for cooperating with the hull C by playing the role of tracks in order to increase the motivity of the vehicle 2 on the hull C.

The vehicle 2 further comprises a turbine 8, rotationally driven by a motor M3, making it possible to both displace the vehicle 2 under the water and to create a vacuum in the vicinity of a bottom 10 of the vehicle which defines a volume V10 delimited by the surface of the hull C of the boat and the bottom 10. The motor M3 is more preferably an electric motor supplied by cables connected to a surface power supply. The volume V10 is delimited, on the side of the lateral surfaces 41 and 42 and on the side of the rear wall 46, by a flexible peripheral skirt 11 comprising lateral brushes 12 and a rear brush 14. This flexible peripheral skirt 11 makes it possible to limit the passage of water to the volume V10, in order to favour the creating of a vacuum in this volume by the action of the turbine 8. The vacuum is generated through the aspiration of the water according to the arrow F1 of the volume V10 towards the inside of the vehicle 2 through holes not shown arranged in the bottom 10. Inside the vehicle 2, the flow of water aspirated F1 is filtered and the cleaning waste is stored in a waste storage tank, not shown, installed inside the vehicle 2. After filtering, the water is discharged outside of the vehicle 2 by a discharge outlet 82.

Alternatively, the flow of water aspirated can be discharged directly from the vehicle 2 and be filtered in an external device.

Alternatively, the flexible skirt 11 can be made using walls of flexible rubber or other materials.

The vehicle 2 is provided with two cleaning brushes 16 and 18. The brushes 16 and 18 each comprise an annularly-shaped plate 160 and 180 from which extend brush bristles 162 and 182 arranged according to an annular configuration, which can be seen in particular in FIG. 2. According to this configuration, the bristles 162 and 182 are arranged in the vicinity of the external edges of the plates 160 and 180 and the central zones of the plates are devoid of bristles.

According to an alternative not shown of the invention, the brushes can include cleaning elements of different types such as sponges. The bristles of brushes 162 and 182 can also be arranged according to a cylindrical configuration and occupy the entire surface of the plates 160 and 180.

The brushes 16 and 18 each comprise a central rotation shaft 161 or 181 fixed to the plate 161 or 181 by a flange 170. X16 and X18 denote the respective axes of rotation of the brushes 16 and 18, parallel to the axis Z-Z′. Each brush 16 or 18 is rotationally driven by a drive system comprising a blind sleeve 163 or 183 mounted with the possibility of rotating about the axis X16 or X18 in an intermediate partition 48 of the chassis of the vehicle 2 and in the bottom 10. The rotation of the sleeve 163 in relation to the partition 48 and to the bottom 10 is provided respectively with bearings 172 and 173, which can be seen in particular in FIGS. 6 and 9 in the form of ball bearings. The mounting of the sleeve 183 in the partition 48 and the bottom 10 is carried out according to the same principle. Each sleeve 163 or 183 rotates as one with a toothed wheel 165 or 185. The toothed wheel 165 is rotationally driven by a pinion 200, which itself is rotationally driven by a motor M4 via means of transmitting torque not shown. The second toothed wheel 185 is rotationally driven by the toothed wheel 165 via a gear train 202.

The shafts 161 and 181 are mounted in the respective open ends of the sleeves 163 and 183 with the possibility of translation according to the axes X16 and X18, i.e. parallel to the axis Z-Z′. The plates 160 and 180 of the brushes 16 and 18 rotate as one with sleeves 163 and 183 by the intermediary of fingers 190 fixed with respect to these sleeves, extending from a radial portion of the sleeves 163 and 183 parallel to the axis Z-Z′ and inserted into corresponding holes 192 of the plates, with the possibility of sliding parallel to the axis Z-Z′ in relation to the brushes 16 and 18. The flange 170 has holes 175 allowing for the passage of the fingers 190. The fingers 190 makes it possible to provide for the driving in rotation of the brushes 16 and 18, while allowing for the translation of the brushes 16 and 18 along the axes X16 and X18, parallel to the axis Z-Z′. The guiding in translation of the brushes 16 and 18 is also provided by the sliding of the shafts 161 and 181 in rings 177 fixed to the centre of the radial portions of the sleeves 163 and 183.

Springs 194 are interposed between the shafts 161 and 181 and the sleeves 163 and 183 about the axes X16 and X18. More precisely, the springs 194 are mounted inside sleeves 163 and 183 between the rings 177 and rings, of which only one can be seen in FIGS. 6 and 9 with the reference 1611, fixed to the ends of the shafts 161 and 181 opposite the plates 160 and 180. The springs 194 each exert a compression force F194 on the end rings of the shafts 161 and 181. The force F194 tends to move the ring 1611 and the end ring of the shaft 181 away from the rings 177, therefore tends to bring closer the brushes 16 and 18 the partition 48.

During the rotation of the brushes 16 and 18, a hydraulic effect, similar to that of a centrifugal pump, induces a vacuum at the centre of the brushes 16 and 18. This vacuum is applied under the surface constituted by the bristles 162 and 182 of the brushes 16 and 18 by creating a thrusting force Fp that is normal to this surface and parallel to the axes X16 and X18, and which tends to firmly press these brushes against the hull C of the boat. Due to the freedom in translation of the brushes 16 and 18, the thrusting of the brushes against the hull C is increased and the output of the cleaning and of the removal of waste fixed to the hull is improved.

The hydraulic effect created by the brushes 16 and 18 also accentuates the thrusting of the vehicle 2 against the hull C of the boat thanks to the action of the springs 194, in cooperation with the vacuum created by the turbine 8 and which is applied between the bottom 10 and the hull C. In effect, the springs 194 form a means of transmitting the thrusting force Fp between the brushes 16 and 18 and the fixed part of the vehicle 2, by the intermediary of the sleeves 163 and 183, which are fixed in translation in relation to the bottom 10 and to the intermediate partition 48.

According to an alternative not shown, the vehicle 2 may not include return springs 194 for the brushes 16 and 18 in the direction of the fixed part of the vehicle. In this case, the brushes do not participate in the thrusting of the vehicle 2 against the hull C.

The freedom in translation of the brushes 16 and 18 towards the upper portion of the vehicle 2 is limited by a bottom 196 of the sleeves 163 and 183. The mobility in translation of the brushes 16 and 18 towards the hull C is limited by an abutment not shown.

The translation movements of the brushes 16 and 18 can be independent from one another in order to adapt, as shown in FIG. 7, to the localised difference in level of the hull C of the boat. Also, in order to adapt to the differences in level of the hull which can exist between the pairs of wheels 6 and 7 and in particular to the convex portions of the hull C, the brushes 16 and 18 have the possibility of retracting in such a way that the position of the brushes is retracted from the surface of contact between the wheels 63, 64, 73 and 74 and the hull of the boat.

The freedom in translation of the brushes 16 and 18 also makes it possible to clean the surfaces of the hull C of the boat which are locally concave, i.e. the brushes can be positioned into a position wherein they are protruding in relation to the surfaces of contact between the wheels 63, 64, 73 and 74 and the hull C of the boat.

The cleaning vehicle 2 further comprises a roller 22 inserted between the wheels 63, 64 on the wall 41 and a roller 24 inserted between the wheels 73 and 74 on the wall 42. The belts 61 and 71 bear against the rollers 22 and 24. These rollers 22 and 34 allow for a cooperation of the belts 61 and 71 with a protruding surface that could be the hull C, in such a way as to prevent the blocking of the vehicle 2, in the case where the protruding surface were to be positioned between two wheels 63, 64 or 73 and 74 on the same side 41, 42 of the vehicle 2 and to improve the motivity in such a case. According to an alternative not shown of the invention, the cleaning vehicle 2 can include a single cleaning brush or include more than two brushes.

According to an alternative not shown of the invention, the vehicle 2 is devoid of means for displacement such as the wheels and the rollers mentioned hereinabove. Such is in particular the case when the vehicle 2 is mounted at the end of a handling staff. 

1. Underwater vehicle for cleaning submerged surfaces comprising a chassis and at least one brush for cleaning the surface to be cleaned rotationally driven by a motor about an axis of rotation of this brush, the brush is able to move, with respect to a fixed part of the vehicle, in a translational movement along its axis of rotation in such a way that it can be pressed firmly against the surface to be cleaned under the effect of a vacuum created by the rotation of the brush, the brush comprising a rotation shaft inserted into a sleeve that rotates as one with the brush and rotationally driven by a drive system, wherein the brush rotates as one with the sleeve because of fingers fixed to the sleeve and inserted into holes of the brush with the possibility of sliding parallel to the axis of rotation of the brush.
 2. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 1, comprising means for transmitting, between the brush and the fixed part of the vehicle, a force for thrusting the brush onto the surface to be cleaned generated by the vacuum created by the rotation of the brush.
 3. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 2, wherein the means of transmitting the thrusting force include a spring mounted between the brush and the sleeve and suited for exerting a force that tends to bring the brush closer to the fixed part of the vehicle.
 4. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 1, comprising members for displacement of the vehicle on the surface to be cleaned.
 5. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 1, comprising two annularly- shaped brushes each centred about its axis of rotation.
 6. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 1, wherein the members for displacement include two wheels driven in pairs on two opposite sides of the chassis by two belts each driven by a motor.
 7. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 5, wherein the brush is able to move in a translational movement along its axis of rotation between: a first position, in which the brush is retracted in relation to the surfaces of contact between the wheels and the surface to be cleaned on the side of a bottom of the chassis, and a second position, in which the brush is protruding in relation to the surfaces of contact between the wheels and the surface to be cleaned, opposite the bottom of the chassis.
 8. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 6, comprising rollers interposed between the wheels and whereon the belts bear against.
 9. Underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 6, wherein the belts are mounted in grooves retracted from the external edges of the wheels.
 10. Use of an underwater vehicle for cleaning according to claim 1 for the cleaning of submerged hulls of boats. 